JimF-LowBari

<Hades> I saw Purry County and thought one year someone tried to bring a sheep on the bus. ^0^ And (like the '60s) if you remember some bus rides then you weren't on the bus. And I'm still trying to remember coming home from New Orleans in 1978.

Sometime the Brady (Bratty) Bunch and sometimes the Manson Family. ^0^ Oh wait, we did have a Manson in the drumline :sshh:

Maybe it took a few viewings of the show to get used to. :P Seeing it without warning in the first half of June was kind of a shock. Feeling some people had was "Why do GH change the Cadets unis?. Because he CAN!". ^0^ Also at the time no one quite had an idea what the <bleep> "Doors of Perception" meant. I was hoping Cadets were going to do Jim Morrison and company since Crossmen were already doing "Radar Love" and "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" (aka - music I can understand )

<Deleing my smart ###ed comment after I read the last few pages of the original thread> ^0^ Interesting results so far. Voted for 11 rough minutes as that way I can see what the show designers had in mind. #### I've seen rough 11 minutes of shows in the early part of August from some corps in the past. B)

Well they certainly wouldn't do the Funky Chicken (or the Chicken Dance) while playing their horns. Geez, they don't even do high mark time while playing anymore because it throws off the sound quality (or so I've been told). ^0^ :P OK, question for the panel. Early on would would rather see a complete show with a ragged drill or a well executed 8 minutes of drill with 3 minutes of standstill playing?

And since Jeff brought it up, a lot of "Alumni" groups will take in members without any Drum Corps experience. If you want to do Drum Corps but can't do DCI/DCA check the membership rules of your friendly neighborhood ($1 to the Sppiderman song) Alumni corps. And yeah "neighborhood might be a good drive away.... This shameless plug brought to you by the letters D and C. B)

OK thanks to the last two posters for correcting me. Thought I remembered GH last year during the season saying he caught a lot of "stuff" from fans and alumni for messing with the uniforms. Must have assumed he dropped the back fronts (front backs?? :P ) but... If I get back in time to watch Cadets I'll let you know what the unis look like this year. Like I posted before I'm against amps being used by corps but since I'm at the show already I'll watch what's being done. And to be blunt, as a member of the "opening act" I can't beat the admission price ($0) ^0^ :P

Didn't the double front uniforms (uni front also worn on the back) get dropped part way thru the season? Sorry but I saw the word shoddy and that's what came to my mind. Thought of this for two reasons: 1) "Shoddy" is a Civil War term that originally was applied to chepo clothes 2) The front of the Cadets cadet top is so sharp looking the "cloth glued on cloth" (my term) backs looked crappy by comparision. Maybe the effect was supposed to be surreal but it just looked wierdly bad....

Back in June 2002 I went to my first corps show in 10 years with Cadets and Crossmen. Then the Cadets did not have a completed show as the corps just walked between a bunch of sets. Talked to a Cadets dad and he said the weather kept the corps from learning the complete show. And Spring 2002 had horrible torrential rains in my part of the country. In 2004 there were a lot of posts about incomplete shows at early contests. Appeared a large percentage of corps were not ready by the start of the season and weather was not a factor. Asked what was the difference between 2002 and 2004. Most of the responses I recieved was that in two years the number of sets in a show greatly increased so more time was needed to learn the show. My guess is the number of sets is still increasing as corps try to do more and more on the field. IOW - get used to incomplete shows early on as it ain't gonna get better.

LMAO!!! :P Actually drove thru the Welsh term for "Coal Brook" one time just to see what it looked like. After I was done, my first thought was "That that was 15 minutes wasted". Seriously way to go Cresson for having three or four corps at a parade. Only multi-corps parades I see anymore is Baltimore area during 4th of July. ... Now turning thread control back over to Mr Matczak....

And an 'Attaboy for anyone having the slightest clue where the Hades Cresson, PA is at. I do but had to go thru it when I took the bus home from college. :sshh:

*sigh* At least they're doing the parade bit so they won't be totally inactive. It's so much harder to reform if the corps shuts down and everyone scatters. No Senior corps from Canada :(

If this means you'll be at Gettysburg stop by the Lancers group if you get a chance. I'm the only Jim playing Bari. If I remember right we missed each other two years ago when I got sick and had to miss the show. :( Oh ####, anyone's welcome to stop by and say hi to my ugly mug. Last year I met Sweenydoc, let's see who I meet this year.

Much as I am anti-amp I do plan to get back to see the Cadets and Crossmen as soon as I get done changing out of my "green garb". :P Problem is I think the order is Lancers, Crossmen, Cadets which means I'll probably miss Crossmen. Hey I'm 48 years old which means it takes a while to catch my breath and drink a bottle of Gatorade or two. :(

I've seen that pic before, it's New Orleans... oops, Nah 'Lins... Don't think I can post pics like the rest of you as I don't have a home webpage. Here's a Flick link to the four older Baris I currently own. Only problem is you also have to look at my ugly mug as well. http://www.flickr.com/photos/14488996@N00/ (Just added first three pics) First Flickr shot is me last year with the Lancers marching with my 3 valver. Second I'm posing with my Olds P/R Duratone (frosted finish) Bari. The Olds Baris were great horns as well and a joy to play. Has to be one of the worlds' worst staged shots of me playing this horn. It was taken in the backyard and there is a freakin' swing set behind me. Pic was taken a few days before I left corps to join the "working world". And BlondeContra your reasons for doing All Age are an echo of what I heard (and said) 30 years ago. No slam intended to Junior corps, each person has to do what's best for them, be it Junior, All Age or (yes) Alumni. Ain't having a choice great. :)

Next Saturday (6/17) Cadets and Crossmen will be unveiling their shows at the Gettysburg, PA Brass Band Festival. There will also be an Alumni corps that I'm very familiar with.

Nope this was about a third the size of the baby contras. Westshoremen had the babies in the 1974 corps when they reformed so I saw a good bit of the "little" guys. Will try to get a another look this weekend at practice. Have yet to see a picture of this horn. :P Trying to picture one of these horns on Jays shoulder. :P

Back in the 50s or early 60s there was a contraption :P that looked like you described. It was a should mounted euph and was used by a (some?) girl corps instead of contras. Think I asked the question because I saw pieces of the beast down in our corps equipment room.

Last I check (a while ago) the folks making the CDs were looking for albums they didn't have. And pistolpete, hope your tapes are still laying around. Had a few of smaller corps that were never recorded and I had them converted to CD a year or so ago for free. Can provide the link if anyone wants but this place does DC only.

Always thought doing the RCA shows gave me a real appreciation for the effort given by corps. When you see a top corps you know #### well they busted their butts practicing. But even a last place corps (raising my hand here) has to put in boat loads of effort to put on a whole show. And they know full well they will get less respect and audience response. Also think it's easier to have a good sounding show with a full corps. It's when a corps has a total unbalance in the horn line or between drums and horns that they have to get inventive or be careful in what they do. Saw a lot of unbalanced and/or rookie filled corps in RCA and they were interesting to watch to see how they handled their shortcomings. Just another reason why I buy the Prelims CDs instead of Finals.

Mike (Mr. Boooooo Chronicles ^0^ ) when did DCN finally go under? Think I let me subscription lapse in the early 80s when I moved on my own and had to cut corners. Lat I remember DCN was moving into covering MBs. Have to thank DCN for gettng me hooked on old time corps sounds. DCN was starting to re-release Fleetwood albums but a fire wiped out most of the original tapes in the mid or late 70s. :( (That's why a lot of Fleetwoods today are from cleaned up records. The originals literally went up in smoke.)

Drum Corps News as it was based in MA and followed the Senior circuit better than DCW at the time. LOL, we even had a DCN writer ride with us on long trips. Also got lot of show flyers handed out and mailed. Don't see that anymore. And my annual buy DCA Champs records now and get 'em by Thanksgiving letter. :)

Always thought this was one of DCAs best changes. Beats the old way of "start up" corps getting their brains kicked in by the big guns. There was a reason why the smaller corps had their own circuit. (Been there, got clobbered by that)

Sounds like was Jeff Raudabaugh doing his tribute to the Bridgemen. Short skinny guy about HS/college age.

Yep, only year we did ICA shows when I was in Main Guard (long story). Empire went for the GE that year as they also had Uncle Sam on stilts. Only remember that because of an ICA show in West Hillbillie, NY (town looked like it anyway) :P . Corps left the field after retreat and marched behind the stadium where there was poor lighting and pot holes big enough to swallow cars. "Uncle Sam" left with the corps walking on his stilts and had to make sure he didn't break his neck out back. And we were taking bets if he would fall on his face or butt. ^0^